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Building an Islamic Feminism: Contrasting Beauvoir and the work of
Amina Wadud
By Sarah Mohr
We must remember we are women born,
By mightier than ourselves, we have to bear
These things—and worse. For my part, I will ask
Pardon of those beneath, for what perforce
I needs must do, but yield obedience
To them that walk in power; to exceed
Is madness not wisdom.
Antigone[:]
“Then in the future
I will not bid you help me; nor henceforth,
Though you desire, shall you, with my goodwill,
Share what I do.”
-Sophocles, Antigone (ed. Appelbaum 1993, 3)
Abstract
People of all religions are working around the world for greater rights for women. A
crucial part of this process is dialogue between traditions about the causes of genderbased oppression. To understand Islamic feminism, people in the West must
understand how the meanings of biology, gender and alterity differ in Islamic feminism
from their meanings in traditional Western feminist theory. A comparison of Simone de
Beauvoir’s explanation in The Second Sex of the role of biology in women's oppression
and Amina Wadud’s hermeneutical arguments about women's role in Islam suggests
that Islamic feminism should work based on assumptions that are internal to Islam.
Introduction
This paper discusses the starting place for Islamic feminism by contrasting a central
point of Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex with the work of Amina Wadud.
Beauvoir’s arguments for sexual equality in The Second Sex are secular, and start with
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the assumption that biological difference is an inadequate justification for sexual
inequality. Wadud’s arguments are focused on assumptions that are internal to the
Islamic tradition and drawn from the Qur’an. This paper argues that in Islamic
feminism as a whole, as in Wadud's work specifically, the fact that sexual difference is
insufficient grounds for women's oppression is not that relevant to Muslim women's
liberation. A hermeneutic approach based on the Qur'an may prove more effective
advocating the importance of women's liberation in majority-Muslim societies.
While Wadud is clear that she is not a feminist, her work is cited by most women
writing on Islamic feminism and forms a foundation for Muslim women writing on
women in Islam. Beauvoir, specifically in The Second Sex, likewise forms a crucial
foundation for the work of feminists in Europe and North America, as well as women
writing on feminism generally (Daly 1985, 56). Wadud refers to Beauvoir in her work,
and many Muslim women writing on Islamic feminism refer to Wadud. Contrasting
Wadud's work with Beauvoir's work The Second Sex clarifies the different starting
places of Western feminism and Islamic feminism. When this difference is
contextualized within the history of colonialism within most majority-Muslim countries,
the importance of grounding Islamic feminism within a Muslim theological framework
becomes evident.
The question we are asking is what role does feminism have in Islam? Leila
Ahmed’s final statement in Woman and Gender in Islam reflects the hope that women
in Islamic societies could benefit from feminism. She states,
Perhaps feminism could formulate some such set of criteria for exploring issues
of women in other cultures, including Islamic societies- criteria that would
undercut even inadvertent complicity in serving Western interests but that, at the
same time, would neither set limits on the freedom to question and explore nor in
any way compromise feminism’s passionate commitment to the realization of
societies that enable women to pursue without impediment the full development
of their capacities and to contribute to their societies in all domains (Ahmed
1992, 248).
Ahmed’s conclusion reflects a belief that a dialogue between feminism and Islam could
further the development of the role of women in majority-Muslim societies.
The oppression of women is common to both the West and the East (Barlas 2002,
2). Modernity has been universally oppressive to women (Moghissi 1999, 78). But the
oppression of women is not a feature solely of modernity. The oppression of women is a
part of the development of Islam historically, as pre-Islamic practices that discriminated
against women became incorporated into Muslim society (Ahmed 1992, 87). However
misogyny, inequality, and patriarchy have often been justified by Muslims as Islamic
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(Barlas 2002, 2). As a result, some ask if Islam and the Qur'an are inherently oppressive
to women (Barlas 2002, 4-5).
Defining Islam allows Islamic feminists to disentangle misogyny as it is practiced
by Muslims from normative Muslim theology itself (Barlas 2002, 5). Islam must be
distinguished from the diversity of social customs of Muslim cultures (Wadud 2001,
166; Barlas 2002, 11). All forms of Islam rely on the Qur’an and sunnah (practices of the
Prophet) and hadith (sayings of the Prophet). Amina Wadud states,
The term Islam is itself thought to apply to many different things…the
criteria we use to evaluate whether something is or is not part of Islam
must be on the basis of the Qur’an, (the revealed word of God) and Sunnah
(normative behavior of the person through whom that revelation was sent,
the Prophet Muhammed) (Wadud 2001, 166).
The authenticity of any one practice or belief must be judged based on fidelity to the
Qur’an and sunnah (Wadud 2001, 166). When a practice is not faithful to the Qur’an
and the sunnah, many do not consider it authentic or Islamic.
The particular religious laws that govern many Muslim nation states vary from
country to country, implying that they are not absolute and fixed, at least in
interpretation, but rather culturally derived and open to multiple influences. Misogyny
and patriarchy exist in Muslim culture and society as they appear throughout human
society, but they are not Islam; they are not even Islamic. They are not a fixed set of
standards ordained by God and given to the Prophet.
Because the oppression of women is a problem for human society (Wadud 2001,
67), women are working around the world to improve the civil and human rights of
women and to increase the opportunities available for women to fully engage human
society as free and equal persons. Feminism is characterized by its commitment to resist
the oppression of women(Jones 2000, 5; Wittig 1992, 14). The liberation of women
would mean full human rights for women, and the end of gender-based oppression
(Jones 2000, 5). Feminist theory has been defined by the struggle for social justice for
women and the liberation of women as well as the philosophical process of
deconstructing gender (Jones 2000, 7).14
For purposes of this paper, gender will be used to indicate the social construction of the meaning of sex
(Jones 2000, 8). Sex refers to the simple biological difference that distinguishes women from men (Jones
2000, 8). Sex is not the determining factor in the establishment of gender: rather, gender as constructed
by any given society determines how people view the significance of sex, and, consequently, how society
defines women (Barlas 2002, 13). For some feminists, the meaning of gender depends heavily on sex, for
others it does not (Moghissi 1999, 3).
14
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All women writing on gender do not give the same primacy to sex in the
construction of gender inequality (Wadud 2007, 79). Western Feminists tend to link
arguments about women’s biological inferiority with patriarchal understandings of
women’s ontological inferiority. But many Muslim women argue that in the Qur’an and
the sunnah the fact of biological difference does not support the theory that women are
ontologically inferior (Barlas 2002, 134). Wadud argues that gender inequality has a
hermeneutical explanation in Islam, not a biological explanation, and that androcentric
readings of the Qur’an contribute to the oppression of women and are in fact
misreadings of Islam.
While Beauvoir disputes historical arguments about women's ontological
inferiority based on sex to defend arguments for women's liberation, Wadud begins with
women's ontological equality with men, and women and men's equal agency before God
to explain the need for social justice for women. A comparison of Wadud and Beauvoir’s
writing clarifies the key differences in the meaning of sex and gender for both many
Western feminists and Muslim women writing on Islam.
Biology, Ontology, Alterity: Simone de Beauvoir
“One is not born, but rather becomes a woman,” states Beauvoir in The Second Sex,
(Beauvoir 1989, 267). Her statement reflects her argument that women have been
defined and determined by the way women are the Other in contrast to men’s existence
as the sole transcendent subjects in society, literature, history, and psychology.
Beauvoir’s work has had a great impact on feminist thought. She is widely cited by
feminists writing on women and gender. Beauvoir assumes that the biological inferiority
of women and the oppression of women are directly linked and that they comprise the
basis of justifications for the oppression of women. This understanding has profoundly
influenced Western feminism. She states that biology has served as a justification for the
reduction of woman to a being who exists for man and not for herself. Biology, argues
Beauvoir, has been interpreted by men to justify the oppression of women.
According to Beauvoir, men have drawn from biology the assumption that
woman’s nature is passive and inert, in contrast to the active male principle, and
therefore inferior. She argues that the passivity of the female in coitus contributes to this
assumption (Beauvoir 1989, 21). The sex act and conception thereof both indicate
women’s passivity and inferiority. Women are assumed to be dependent, inactive, and
subjected to men because the act of copulation usually involved a motionless female
being acted upon by the male. According to patriarchal worldviews, women’s natural
propensity for inactivity, as seen in intercourse, makes women unsuitable to engage life
as fully human persons.
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The other false explanation for women’s subjugation to men, to Beauvoir, is that
simply because women bear children, their responsibilities are thought to be limited to
childrearing. Women are responsible for the continuation of the species because of their
ability to give birth and therefore women have been expected to take responsibility for
raising children, and to sacrifice all other goals in life (Beauvoir 1989, 23). Procreation is
women’s place.
Women’s passivity in sex and centrality in procreation lead to the subordination
of women. These two biological ideas are then used to justify the subjugation of women
in accord with the self-interest of men. Women’s status is enshrined as a natural, moral,
and necessary consequence of biology. Men’s status relative to women becomes fixed
and eternal. After tracing the logic of the biological explanation for the oppression of
women, Beauvoir denies it has any credibility. She says,
These biological considerations are extremely important. In the history of
woman they play a part of the first rank and constitute an essential
element in her situation…But I deny that they establish for her a fixed and
inevitable destiny. They are insufficient for setting up a hierarchy of the
sexes; they fail to explain why woman is the Other; they do not condemn
her to remain in this subordinate role forever (Beauvoir 1989, 33).
Despite the flawed nature of the argument that biology is destiny, historically the facts of
biology have served to justify woman’s oppression. Whether or not biology explains
women's oppression, and Beauvoir claims it does not, historically men and women have
certainly explained the division of the sexes and the subsequent division of labor with
biological facts. Beauvoir assumes that the argument against privileging men over
women can be refuted by establishing women’s biology as insufficient cause for women’s
oppression.
Women’s biological inferiority for Beauvoir has led to an understanding that
woman is ontologically inferior to man. For Beauvoir, ontologically and morally woman
is viewed as both an idol (Beauvoir 1989, 158) and a slave (Beauvoir 1989, 187),
venerated and feared, but never the subject of her own experience. Her status as idol is
representative of her death and life-giving capacities, her embodiment of the ongoing
productive and destructive cycles of nature (Beauvoir 1989, 193). Her status as slave
allows man to contain the uncontainable, uncontrollable forces of nature. Just as her
divine existence as giver of life and death makes her sacred, and able to be appeased,
coerced, and manipulated, her status as slave allows man to control her and subjugate
her. Woman as idolized mother and giver of life and death, and woman as wife and
subjugated dominated slave are both roles that serve to assuage man’s fears, according
to Beauvoir. Man’s fear about his lack of control over nature and inability to establish
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control over the awesome forces of nature is resolved through his possession of women
(Beauvoir 1989, 197). Women are either glorified and protected from life (Beauvoir
1989, 235), or debased and excluded from life. Men alone become the transcendent
subject capable of free will and agency, while woman is reduced to the Other, a being
who exists for men, thought about and acted on by man; carnal, animal, fleshly, and
recognized by man as a possession and an object (Beauvoir 1989, 165).
The ramifications of the views Beauvoir has described are various. The exclusion
of women has made women so inferior to men that Virginia Woolf likens woman’s role
in society to that of a fun house mirror that serves to make men look better (Woolf 1989,
101). Women writing on the social oppression of women have pinpointed women’s
education as a crucial part of women’s oppression. Any man could feel accomplished if
literate because women were not able to read or write (Wollenstonecroft 1996, 100).
Understanding that gender resulted from sex is an assumption that underpins concepts
like the women as a commodity and sexual commerce (Irigaray 31,1985), or woman as a
class within heterosexist society (Wittig 1992, 15). Beauvoir’s arguments about the
biological basis of women's inferiority and subsequent oppression greatly influence
feminist thought. For many feminists, the accusation that biology is destiny has been
true enough historically that it has given women's oppression a scientific basis (Irigaray
70, 1985).
Beauvoir concludes that in the modern world, changes in the social conventions
associated with the sex act and childrearing based on the ability of women to be wage
earners will lead to changes in the “moral, social, cultural and other consequences” of
sex (Beauvoir 1989, 724-725). She states that humanity is a “historical development”
and that there is no" physiological destiny" which determines the construction of gender
roles in society (Beauvoir 1989, 716). Changes in the labor force and other economic
considerations will resolve gender inequality in society and render obsolete the
biological considerations that created women's oppression.
Hermeneutics, Ontology, Agency: Amina Wadud
Muslim women do not typically explain gender as based on sex. According to Wadud,
there is a hermeneutical basis for women’s oppression in Islam and she proposes a
hermeneutical solution. If Islamic feminists want to unravel and discredit the theories
that support sexual inequality, arguing that biological differences do not justify different
treatment of men and women is insufficient.
Muslim women writing on Islamic feminism often comment on the core theme of
biological difference for Western feminism (Moghissi 1999, 44). The centrality of
biological difference in Western feminism poses a problem for Islamic feminism because
of the lack of support in Islam for gender inequality as a result of sex. Establishing
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biological equality between men and women has no significant impact on the denial of
women’s civil rights in an Islamic context (Mernissi 1991, 19). The argument for
women’s civil inferiority does not begin from women’s biological inferiority in Muslim
society (Barlas 2002, 130).
Many Muslim women cite misreadings of the Qur’an to explain sexual inequality
and the primary cause of women’s oppression (Barlas 2002, 132-133). Wadud’s
argument against sexual inequality approaches biological difference hermeneutically,
with the hermeneutic of tawhid. Wadud contends that biology is not a defining factor of
human worth or rank in Islam (Wadud 2007, 46). Women’s biology does not limit her
full agency, her divinely mandated role of khalifah (agent, or trustee).
Most people who defend the Islamic tradition as pro-woman state that the places
in the Qur'an where women's rights are differentiated from the rights of men are
intended to restrict the abuse of women, not permit it. Moreover, many Muslims argue
that Islam distinguishes women from men to protect women's interests (Barlas 2002,
198).
Although the differentiation of men from women in Muslim society is connected
to sex, it is not an argument based on women's inferiority. In the cases where sex forms
the central grounds for sexual inequality, it is the social implications of sex that have
been used to justify the oppression of women, not merely biological facts.
Wadud argues that the widespread reading of sexual inequality in the Qur’an is in
part based on the misapplication of specific verses to universal or general concepts, and
the decision to abandon the central ethical principles of Islam, in particular the core
value of tawhid (God’s unity). She argues that using the Qur’an to justify women’s
inferior civil status relies on a misreading of the Qur’an that privileges an ethic of
inequity and oppression over the ethic of the justice and human equality that appears
throughout the Qur’an.
Wadud explains there are two types of verses in the Qur'an, 'am (universal)
verses and khass (specific) verses. She gives the example of the verse prohibiting the
remarriage of Prophet Muhammad’s wives after his death. She states this verse is
unequivocally khass and that it is impossible to apply the verse in a general context, let
alone a universal context (Wadud 2007, 196). Even universal verses cannot be applied
literally and universally at all times. Moreover, even universal verses have to be reevaluated and interpreted based on changes in cultural norms and the natural flux of
society across generations and epochs. She notes that her interpretive method
recognized that the intent of the “‘am, general utterances [in the Quran], was their
historical necessity in a particular time and location while the comprehension of the
transcendent reality of the divine cannot be discussed in the boundaries of any human
language as a symbolic meaning-making system,” (Wadud 2007, 196). Wadud’s point is
that when people decide on a specific interpretation of scripture, they make a choice.
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While truth does have an absolute value, the multiple possibilities for each reading of
scripture yields human understandings of truth dependent on interpretation. People
make meaning based on their perception or preconceived conclusions about reality. No
scripture can be limited to a single, clear, and specific truth.
In addition to the problems of universalizing specific verses, taking single verses
as authoritative at the expense of greater themes of the Qur'an is a problem. The concept
of God as the Just, or Al-Adl, has been used to justify the type of feminist apologetics
that Wadud employs to discuss 'am verses in the Qur'an. Zulm, translated as both
oppression and injustice, is prohibited by the Qur’an (16:90).15 Oppression goes against
God’s just nature and God’s plan for human beings. Wadud argues that God’s justice is
incompatible with zulm and that any misogynistic interpretation of the Qur’an is zulm.
Wadud’s argument about universalizing specific verses is complemented by her
argument emphasizing the ethical norms of the Qur’an. Wadud explain specific verses
need to be understood as part of a greater whole. The hermeneutic of tawhid is partly
about understanding Islam as a totality in order to support greater human rights for
women (Wadud 2007, 15).16
Islamic feminism assumes that all persons are ontologically equal. This is in part
because the Qur’an affirms the equality of human beings before God. Numerous verses
in the Qur’an affirm members of both sexes as equal before God. They are both judged
by their deeds, not their gender.
Wadud insists that despite patriarchal interpretations of primary texts of Islam,
there is no distinction made between men and women in relation to their spiritual
capacities (Wadud 1999, 34). She states, “There is no indication that the Qur’an intends
for us to understand that there is a primordial distinction between men and women with
regard to spiritual potential,” (Wadud 1999, 35). The ontological equality of men and
woman in the Qur’an is not only a theme of Wadud’s work, it is a common theme for
many Muslim women writing on women in Islam.
Allah commands justice, the doing of good, and liberality to kith and kin, and He forbids all shameful
deeds, and injustice and rebellion: He instructs you, that ye may receive admonition. (16:90)
15
Rosemary Radford Ruether is one of the most well-known women writing on Christian feminism and
her approach to scripture reflects the same commitment to the ethical norms of justice and human
dignity. Whether any verse is an article of faith or not relies greatly on the system within which the verse
is understood. Ruether states, “The critical principle of feminist theology is the promotion of the full
humanity of women. Whatever denies, diminishes, or distorts the full humanity of women is, therefore,
appraised as not redemptive (Ruether 1983, 18-19).” Ruether’s work is based on a particular
hermeneutical approach that places the utmost emphasis on women’s rights to freedom, dignity, and
physical safety. Wadud, like Ruether, has developed a hermeneutical approach based on theses moral
imperatives.
16
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The oneness of God is the major theme of the Qur’an. Monotheism is the central
concept emphasized in Islam. All of creation is defined in contrast to the Creator.
Tawhid, the oneness of God, is the core teaching of Islam as a religious faith. The
Qur'anic story of creation supports the transcendent unicity of Allah over all creation,
rather than a mere hierarchy where God rules man and man dominates woman (Wadud
1999, 26).
Wadud’s hermeneutic of tawhid, an exegetical approach to the Qur’an that
emphasizes the unity of the text and therefore prioritizes the deeper and more essential
concerns of the text such as the oneness, justness, and goodness of God, allows the
reader to de-emphasize verses that marginalize women by placing them both within
their historical limits as well as limiting their misuse by devaluing them as primary. The
hermeneutic of tawhid also highlights Wadud's emphasis on women and men's equal
khilafah (agency).
Wadud’s argument about the inconsistency of women’s inferior status in Muslim
society and woman’s equal status before God is clear in her argument about woman as
khalifah (agent and trustee) (Wadud 2007, 33). Wadud argues that throughout the
Qur’an men and women are equally described as trustees who are responsible for the
trusteeship of creation. “The unifying principle of Islam, according to the Qur’an, is the
notion of the human being based on a relationship with the divine; more specifically, the
concept of khalifah, moral agency, the ontological purpose for all creation (Wadud
2007, 80).” The concept that people are God’s trustees on earth is framed by Wadud as
a fundamental piece of God’s plan for creation, central to the Qur’an and to Islam. The
Qur'an states that it was the intention of God to make all human persons equally
trustees (Wadud 2007, 33).
Wadud's hermeneutic of tawhid makes the ontological equality of men and
women central to her understanding of gender equality in Muslim society. While
explaining the marginalization of women based on patriarchal readings of the Qur'an,
the hermeneutic of tawhid also makes values like God's justice primary and
contextualizes specific verses that differentiate men and women based on sex. The
hermeneutic of tawhid supports what Wadud calls gender mainstreaming, or the
inclusion of women in all realms of Muslim society. She argues that the hermeneutic of
tawhid and the values it delineates must influence public policy and reframe the way
understandings of gender affect Muslim women's lives to establish social justice (Wadud
1999, 102-103, Wadud 2007, 96-97).
The importance of an Islamic Feminism
Why does the idea of using feminism, a Western concept about the basis for gender
inequality, in conjunction with Islamic explanations, make sense? It seems almost
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counterintuitive after looking at how the starting place of Western feminism is so
different from that of Islamic feminism. It makes any conversation about Islam and
feminism seem impossible. Many Muslim women writing on Islam go out of their way to
state that according to Islam women and men are ontologically equal because of their
equal khilafah and their mutual total dependence on God, unlike Western feminism
which emphasizes the ontological inequality of men and women based on biological
justifications of women's inferiority. Muslim women writing on women in Islam also
state that traditional feminist theory is not helpful in explaining gender based
oppression in Islam.
In addition to the differences in the ways of understanding and framing gender in
Western feminism and Islamic feminism, describing women has additional problems in
Islam. The importance of using a Qur’anic concept like the hermeneutic of tawhid to
frame gender equality is reinforced by the way Europeans during colonialism linked
women’s other-ness in Islam and Islamic misogyny and Islamic inferiority. The dearth
of opportunities for women and rights for women supported European understandings
of Islamic inferiority. In response, Westernization was and is joined to feminism and the
destruction of Muslim culture. While modernization is seen as necessary, the
subordination of women to men is often linked to Islamic identity and becomes
synonymous with resisting Westernization and changes in traditional culture.
Haideh Moghissi describes the unfavorable portrayal of the "Orient", and Muslim
culture in the Orient, as a representation in the interests of colonialism. “The
domesticated, subjugated, unenlightened Other as opposed to the liberated,
independent and enlightened Western self was used as a moral prop to legitimize
colonial power relations,”(Moghissi 1999, 15). Woman’s status as other in Islam was
complicated by the Orientalist’s depiction of Islam as other. Conceding that women were
debased as a result of Islam was part of the justification for colonialism. To avoid being
complicit in Western colonial domination any Islamic feminist epistemology must
account for the other-ness of Muslim women both as women and as Muslims during
colonialism.
Ahmed likewise describes the way women’s other-ness in Islam was used as an
argument for Islamic inferiority. She describes in particular the way that in Egypt the
introduction of European feminist ideas such as educating women and unveiling, made
the process of colonization synonymous with the work for women’s rights. Ahmed
describes the oppression of Muslim women by Muslim men, and the liberation of
Muslim women as being linked by the Victorian colonial establishment. She says,
The idea that Other men, men in colonized societies or societies beyond the
borders of the civilized West, oppressed women was to be used, in the rhetoric of
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colonialism, to render morally justifiable its project of undermining or
eradicating the cultures of colonized peoples (Ahmed 1992, 151).
The concept that the backward Oriental man needed to be restrained from oppressing
the Oriental woman served to justify the destructive power of colonialism. The issue of
women's rights became linked to the destruction of Muslim culture.
Conclusion: Contrasting Beauvoir and Wadud
Many of the central challenges to feminism contributing to the improvement of Muslim
women's lives are framed by the differences between Beauvoir and Wadud. Beauvoir
argues about biology, women's inferiority and women as Other. Her critiques of
biological arguments for gender inequality are resolved with visions of economic power
for women. Religious arguments are not central to her discussion. Wadud builds her
arguments for gender justice on hermeneutics, women’s and men's equality
ontologically, and women’s and men's equal agency in Islam. Her arguments are faithbased in the sense that they take seriously the central importance of religion for
women's experience. Her call for gender equality draws on her arguments about God's
just nature and God's purpose for men and women.
The goal of feminism is to establish equal opportunities and better lives for
women. This goal, the goal of human rights for all women, is a common goal for women
around the world. However, the contrast between these two thinkers shows the limits to
Western theory as a defense of women’s rights in Islam. The legacy of Orientalism and
colonialism further detract from Western feminists' ability to provide theoretical
support for women's rights in Muslim society. The major contribution of Western
feminism to the theoretical grounds for Islamic feminism then is the shared goal of all
feminists of better lives for all women, and ending the oppression of women.
Many Muslim women writing on Islamic feminism reject the central starting
place of feminists like Beauvoir who see biological difference as the foundation for the
social inequality of men and women. Western feminism can still contribute to Islamic
understandings of the mothering, language, art, love, freedom, the erotic, heterosexism,
and other areas of human experience in spite of the need to start from assumptions that
are not part of the Western feminist tradition. The work of "jamming the theoretical
machinery itself" (Irigaray 78, 1985) is still valuable and grounds for dialogue.
Gender is established for Western feminists, particularly Beauvoir, through
assumptions based on sex. In contrast, Islamic feminists assume that there is a
hermeneutical basis for gender roles and sexual inequality in Muslim contexts. Muslims
need to continue to develop an explanation of gender-based oppression to further the
process of establishing gender equality in Islam. Other concerns such as understanding
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the double bind of Muslim women in relationship to their other-ness as both Muslims
and as Muslim women, as well as the restrictions on Muslim women’s lives due to
traditional family roles will also serve to further illuminate the potential changes needed
to facilitate Muslim women’s full engagement in human society.
This comparison highlights that Islamic feminism needs to start from
assumptions internal to Islam. While Muslim women share with all feminists the values
of justice and human dignity for all women, any epistemological approach to the
"ontology of being” (Wadud 4, 2007) in Islam has to start with "intra-Islamic ideas”
(Wadud 16, 2007). As Wadud states, "Any comparative analysis with secular Western
theories or strategies for mainstreaming women in all aspects of human development
and governance is coincidental and secondary” (Wadud 16, 2007).
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Bibliography
Ahmed, Leila. 1992. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern
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